Weed

I’ve never used marijuana.

Ever. And yes, I do live in bro-surf-hippie San Diego.

I didn’t have any interest in drinking until I turned 21. I grew up with very straight-edge parents though, and was never exposed to weed to alcohol. Now, I’ve been drinking since I turned 21, but still have not touched weed. I just have zero interest whatsoever in it. It’s not that I hate potheads, or have some moral stance against it.

I’ve got no problem whatsoever against it; for both medical and recreational purposes.

I do have a fucking problem with the way people defend marijuana to their death.

Before I continue with this, I’ll go ahead and throw this out there: don’t knock it til you try it. I know, I know. But, I’ve never smoked a cigarette, either. Should I not be allowed to encourage my friends to quit smoking because I haven’t tried it?

There are 4 arguments that people make about marijuana that, quite frankly, I’m sick of hearing. They are, in no particular order:

They drive better when they’re high on weed.

It’s not addictive.

It’s GOOD for you.

It’s a great medicine, in terms of a broad argument.

Let’s tackle each one by one.

“I drive BETTER when I’m high!”

This one probably the one that pisses me off the most.

I see no circumstance whatsoever that you are somehow LESS of a liability while operating a motor vehicle simply because you are stoned. I mean, for crying out loud – over-the-counter drugs like Nyquil warn you against driving because it impairs your ability to operate a vehicle. Yet, somehow I’m supposed to believe that being high makes you drive more like Mario Andretti and less like a fresh-off-the-boat Asian woman?

Typical arguments along these lines include mentioning how the weed relaxes you, and therefore, you concentrate even better. Sorry, but no. Marijuana relaxes you – yes. However, relaxing leads to lower inhibitions. This leads to taking more risks, faster speeds, and overall, worse driving.

Some also argue that the greater concentration increases their reaction times. To that I call bullshit as well. I’ve seen how overall lethargic and lazy some people are when they’re under the influence of marijuana. Maybe I’m ignorant, but I can’t see how you can possibly logically claim that your reaction times in a car while you’re high are quicker than mine when I’m sober.

Truthfully, a situation this last weekend in which I decided to call a cab, rather than ride back home in what was basically a hot-boxed RV booze cruise, is what spawned this post. It’s a bit of a sore subject at the moment and I’m rather opinionated on it.

“It’s not addictive.”

Schedule I drugs or substances have a high potential for abuse. They have no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and there is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.

And truthfully, weed doesn’t deserve to be ranked up there with those other drugs. Perhaps marijuana doesn’t include any actual chemicals that are addicting, such as alcohol or nicotine in cigarettes. However, while hamsterizing this argument, most people fail to mention the addiction to the feeling of the drug.

It’s not only drugs that get you addicted to feelings. Hell, feelings, in their own way, are really just a chemical balance in your body that gives you a high or low. It’s easy to get addicted to the highs. Much like how if you succeed at something and make money, you get a great feeling. A high. You want to repeat that high, so you keep working harder and harder to make more money and accrue more success.

Don’t get me wrong, we all have our vices. There are uncountable amounts of successful people who blaze and are still successful.

But don’t tell me it’s not addictive, because any certain feeling is capable of becoming an addiction.

“It’s good for you.”

In the scheme of what? You’re still inhaling smoke into your lungs, in most cases. There is not any circumstance in which you can scientifically claim that is good for you.

If there is, I’d honestly love to see it and then revoke this part of the article.

It’s good for relaxing? Go for a run. That relaxes me.

“It’s medicine!”

For some people, it’s a painkiller. A way to cope during depression. I’m sure there are other medical reasons, but I’m going to focus on these two for simplicity’s sake.

No doubt, it is a legitimate form of medicine for pain and depression. I just can’t help but think – aren’t there better?

If someone is dealing with rehabbing an injury, part of the battle of becoming a better person is dealing with the pain. I’ve gone through some nasty open wound shoulder surgeries. It’s not fun or pretty, and I took my fair share of Vicodin in the immediate weeks afterwards. Maybe someone who has taken both can comment – how do weed and Vicodin differ as painkillers? I guess I just feel that weed is a way to remove yourself from that reality on a more consistent basis. A way to hide from the pain that ultimately makes you stronger. To me it seems that Vicodin is more of a physical numbing and weed is more of a psychological.

As for depression, I’ll round back to my point about feelings. Someone going through bouts of depression (been there, done that) is simply looking for an escape. Weed provides that. They are addicted to the feelings that the marijuana gives them, because it brings them higher than what they were before. Using it to combat depression though is very much a temporary fix, just like alcohol. When it subsides, you’re left where you were before.

We should encourage people to develop themselves and find happiness rather than prescribing marijuana as a fix.

———-

I’m going to reiterate again, I have no problem with people smoking pot. I actually like the idea of it being legalized in Colorado and Washington – simply because there is no way to stop it. People are going to get their hands on marijuana, and I’d rather see that money go back into improving the economy than into the hands of already-rich drug overlords.

Blaze on, people, blaze on. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and choices. I just don’t like the overall level of defensiveness that comes lashing out from those who do smoke marijuana when they make the above arguments.

I’m really curious to hear responses from people who do smoke, and I am going to have an open mind. So, please comment below.

I’m completely with you on this. It’s amazing how defensive people get, and how much time ans energy they will put into defending pot. Say anything negative about weed and people turn into screeching banshees, almost like feminists.

I do mushrooms. I drink. I smoke. You say “smoking is bad for you,” I’ll say “Yeah, but I’m willing to risk it ”

I’m not going to spend hours (or even minutes) talking about how some smokers live to be 105, blah blah. Yes, smoking is not good for your health. I’m gonna do it anyway, get fucked. But I’m not going to defend it with my dying breath (or wheez) like stoners do pot.

Methinks they identify too closely with their substance of choice. “Im a stoner, I blaze every day, maaan.” Thus, when someone says something about pot, they take it as a personal attack, because it’s that much a part of their self image.

I’m not a “drinker,” “smoker,” or “shroomer/hippie.” I’m an electrician, a writer and a man.

I think you hit the nail on the head. They really do see it as a personal attack against their own person, when in reality my beef is with the effects of the drug.

Agreed, as well, that when you smoke pot, you’re a “stoner.” However, this already has such a negative connotation in public, it’s then seen as a badge of pride in the pot community. It’s basically the equivalent of calling yourself an alcoholic and expecting a positive reaction.

1. They drive better when they’re high on weed:
It impairs response time so people don’t drive better when on the bammer. They just like driving whilst stoned, there’s a difference. I hate driving when I’m high. I don’t smoke often (anymore) but I recall a couple months ago, getting high as giraffe pussy, then driving about 4 miles to drop a friend off. Once I hit Fruitridge, I regretted the decision.

2. It’s not addictive.
You nailed it here. It’s the feels not the herb. Weed isn’t addictive in the sense that if you quit you’re going to be putting your life in danger, like benzodiazapines and alcohol. However, you can become dependent on it, which in the DSM IV, I believe it is called “abuse”. At most you will feel down for a days after stopping after some hearty,. constant use. Also, don’t rely on the government to tell you about drugs, their archaic anti drug legislation is bullshit, and unwarranted in many cases.

3. It’s GOOD for you.
Occasional use can provide a pleasant sense of euphoria. But it’s not good for you to smoke it. Tar in your lungs. It’s interesting too, that I smoke stotches (cigs) and don’t cough, but when I smoke herb, I hack like donald duck. I actually dislike smoking it.

4. It’s a great medicine, in terms of a broad argument.
It does have it’s use as a painkiller. Just like vicodin, it’s merely a barrier to greater pain. No painkiller will take all your pain away. Talk to any triage or ER nurse. They have to explain that shit everyday. It does help. I have olive oil/herb mixture that I use as a topical anesthetic on occasion for muscle pain.
As far as depression, that’s a fucking bullshit excuse to use weed, and I’d be surprised if they are prescribing it for that purpose. Chronic use of chronic actually leads to depression because your receptors in your brain are pining for that fix. So they get sad and depressed. This is also due to constant use building tolerance to the effects of the drug. Thus, dependence/abuse vs. addiction.

I’ve used it since I was 7th grade, smoked damn near every day last to years of college. I would only stop in order to pass a drug test, etc. Also, I have a bit of background aside from use, growing up in Mendocino County, and also living in Humboldt for a stint. In those areas, there weed almost runs the local economy. It’s worse now but used to be very profitable.

In addition, I always denied being a stoner. I fucking hate that title.

Great post and thanks for the linkage on your post, as well. Are you on Twitter?

I really have nothing to say, because I mostly agree with everything you said. You did a good job articulating what I was trying to say – not being a pot user myself, it was hard to describe everything I wanted to say.

for reals tho, you and Doc are right. Too many people are defined by their pot use.

However i’ll have to rebuttal this point.

“No doubt, it is a legitimate form of medicine for pain and depression. I just can’t help but think – aren’t there better?”

Weed has hundreds of medicinal applications and has never been the direct cause of death in all of human history. I don’t think any other medicine can claim that.

Chemically weed is not addictive. It is habit forming. Sugar, fast food and caffeine are much more chemically addicting than weed. I think of weed as an amplifier.

If you’re a lazy, unmotivated shit being. Then yes weed will help you becoming even more worthless.

If you’re motivated, creative, determined then weed can help in all those areas.

You quit weed for a month and you don’t experience withdrawals physically.

At the end of the day the people who get most defensive about weed are the ones who have learned that the entire legality argument has been propaganda from the very beginning. So they over react when people try to say weed is evil.

The friends I had who smoked pot would leave a great party……specifically to drive around and smoke pot. For some reason, they thought that they had to be in a moving vehicle to get high. They could have smoked in the yard. Instead, they would load up in some losers car and ride around town smoking out.

I never had a successful customer who bought weed. The guys in suits and nice cars bought X and coke.

Taking 2 hits off a joint usually makes me tired, nasty feeling, and ashamed of being such a dumbass for trying it again. I just want to puke and sleep for 24 hours till these feeling of foggy stupidity goes away.

If people are smoking it around me, I leave the room. Even the contact high makes me feel like a fucking idiot.

I don’t judge my friends who smoke it, and I have many. I just won’t be around the smoke and feel retarded.

Everyone is always encouraging me to from a creative standpoint, since I play guitar, and write (music and this blog, obviously). I just have zero motivation to try it. The smell to me isn’t pleasant, and gives me a headache.

It just seems to promote laziness and it makes “chilling” more fun – does this seem accurate?

Alright so my experiences with alcohol are almost identical to yours. I think that weed would be a waste of your time, I’ve tried it when I was 21. Not fun,I smoked a blunt and got a throat cold mainly because I didn’t understand the concept of smoking. However I’ve tried it more than once and the buzz was just a buzz. I’ve also tried edibles and its not great of an experience.

The feelings that people get from vices(alcohol,weed, cigarettes) in a group setting is a sense of community/ status first and the effects of the vice second. They either want to replicate the feeling that they had with people so now they end up using the vice as a substitution or its a group circle jerk where people numb themselves from their day time experiences. I’ve tried potent edibles, it was an interesting experience however it was really a huge waste of time. Just like anything else you would have to practice, and to get to the point where you can functionally do things while high would require practice. I got high off an edible and I couldn’t even fucking chop an onion efficiently.Getting high off endorphins is a greater feeling than getting high off weed. Its way easier to smoke some weed than to run a marathon, hike up a mountain trail, Hike up sand dunes or an intense workout. It’s also not as rewarding either